29 Oct 5 Reasons To Attend Scottish Games Week

The time draws near. The air crackles with anticipation. The people of Scotland hold their breath as they await the country’s biggest games event of the year: Scottish Games Week 2023.Across five days and three cities, the very best of Scotland’s games industry will be on full display, with developers large and small showing off their games and delivering presentations on the crucial issues of the day.

Tickets to Scottish Games Week 2023 are selling fast, but if you somehow haven’t been convinced by the stacked speaker line-up or bevy of exciting showcase titles, then perhaps the following will push you over the edge: our 5 reasons to attend Scottish Games Week.

1. Discover the Latest Games

Running in parallel to the speaker sessions and panels that define the bulk of Scottish Games Week is the Scottish Games Expo, a showcase of the latest and greatest game projects being developed in Scotland today. Attendees to these Expo events, which take place at both the Industry Conference and More Than Games sections of Scottish Games Week, will get the chance to try out exciting upcoming titles before anyone else.

Highlights include games from Team Terrible, Hyper Luminal Games and Tag Games, and there’s also a rich crop of indie titles to check out too, from the likes of Cobra Mobile, Ant Workshop, and Magination Games. Whether you’re checking in on a project you’ve been following for a while or trying out something no one has seen before, the Scottish Games Expo truly has something for everyone.

2. Learn from Industry Experts

Scottish Games Week 2023 is literally bursting at the seams with incredible guest speakers from across the Scottish games industry and beyond, presenting a fantastic opportunity for new and experienced developers alike to deepen their knowledge and pick up some career-changing best practices. At the Industry Conference, attendees can listen to talks from Resistr’s Rob Elsworthy, Team Terrible’s Greg Lee, King’s Sabrina Carmona, and ID@Xbox’s Ben Robinson, to name but a few.
 
More Than Games stacks even more fluffy speaker pancakes on this pile, with Kelly Vero of Metacrun.ch, Jörg Tittel of RapidEyeMovers, Kate Edwards of Geogrify, and Lee Kirton of 4Media all stepping up to the plate to regale you with their industry wisdom. The topics covered are as diverse as the speakers themselves, too, ranging from AI to Inclusive Design, from the secrets of game trailers to the implications of the Online Safety Bill. No matter who you are or what your relationship with games is, there’s a lot to learn at Scottish Games Week 2023.

3. Seize Networking Opportunities

In games, as in many other industries, networking is one of the most vital steps on the long road to success. Who you know can be just as important as what you know when it comes to securing a strong position, particularly with the bigger players in the industry, the Nintendos and Ubisofts of the world.

Scottish Games Week 2023 presents attendees with an incredible series of networking opportunities. Not only are there ample chances to reach out to studio representatives and colleagues in between the incredible speaker sessions on offer, but there are also dedicated networking events running throughout the week. These range from classic barnstorming after-parties to chilled-out coffee mornings, so there’s something to suit everyone. Get your courage up and introduce yourself; it may just lead to your next big role.

4. Grow and Develop Your Skills

Talks and presentations are all well and good, but sometimes the best way to learn is to simply roll your sleeves up and get stuck in. This is as true in games as it is everywhere else, and at Scottish Games Week 2023 there are myriad opportunities to do so, at the panels, roundtables, and workshop sessions peppered into the schedule across the week.

These include a hands-on session from Sean Taylor and Chris Lowthorpe of Dundee’s InGAME Applied Games Lab, a workshop on maintaining your creative cutting edge in the hyper-hectic modern world from Game Republic’s Dr. Jackie Mulligan, and much, much more. If you’re looking to take your game development skills and knowledge to the next level, Scottish Games Week 2023 is the perfect place to do so.

5. Support the Industry You Love

While, for many of us, our relationship to games is defined largely by our professional involvement with the industry, it’s important not to forget what drew us in in the first place: the sense of wonder, joy, and community that games can deliver better than any other medium. At Scottish Games Week 2023, we want to celebrate this side of games, and help keep its vital flames burning bright for the foreseeable future.

From partnerships with the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity and Blind Burners, to supporting rising indie stars with the Scottish Games Expo, we at Scottish Games Week are proud to stand beside those who are really making a difference in the industry; those who push it forward and make it a better, more inclusive space for everyone. By attending, you can support all of these great causes too, and make your own vital contribution to the future of Scottish games.

If all of that hasn’t convinced you to grab your tickets to Scottish Games Week 2023 immediately, we don’t know what will. If it has, however, then you can pick them up via Citizen Ticket here. We hope to see you all there!

The Scottish Games Week Team